Lockable crown for waterproof watch

ABSTRACT

Unintentional rotation of the crown of a waterproof watch and consequent impairment of the seal against entry of water is prevented by rotating the crown relative to the case body to bring a projection on one of these members into registry with a matching recess in the other and depressing the crown, thereby inserting the projection into the recess and locking the crown against rotation.

United States Patent Tarusawa Aug. 29, 1972 [54] LOCKABLE CROWN FOR WATERPROOF WATCH [72] Inventor: Yasutaka Tarusawa,

Nagano, Japan Okaya,

[73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Suwa Seikosha,

Tokyo, Japan [22] Filed: April 6, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 131,746

30 Foreign Application Priority Data April 9, 1970 Japan ..45/29796 [52] US. Cl. ..58/90 B [51] Int. Cl. ..G04b 37/08 [58] Field 0i Search.. ..58/90 R, 90 B, 95

[56] 8 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,292,540 1/1919 Tough ..58/90 H v FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 309,485 2/1930 Great Britain ..'...58/9O B Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-George H. Miller, Jr. Attorney-Blum, Moscovitz, Friedman & Kaplan [57] ABSTRACT Unintentional rotation of the crown of a waterproof watch and consequent impairment of the seal against entry of water is prevented by rotating the crown relative to the case body to bring a projection on one of these members into registry with a matching recess in the other and depressing the crown, thereby inserting the projection into the recess and locking the crown against rotation.

7 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTED M19 2 9 1973 FIG/ FIGIZ 1 LOCKABLE CROWN FOR WATERPROOF WATCH BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION SUMMARY THE INVENTION The crown and the case body of a waterproof watch can be locked together to prevent accidental rotation of the crown. For this purpose one of these members has projections thereon and the other has matching recesses therein. To lock the crown to the case body,

the crown is rotated until the projections and the recesses are in registry and the crown is pushed toward the case body until it bottoms.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to prevent damage to the seal of a waterproof watch by unintentional rotation of the crown.

Another object of the invention is to prevent unintentional alteration of the time or day indicated bya watch as a result of unintentional rotation of the crown.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the. scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an end view of the crown and part of the watch body;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional viewalong lines Il-II; and

FIG. 3 is a partial perspectiveview of a modified form of a crown and case body.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. 1, the case body -11 is fitted with the crown 12. The pin 13 is fixed firmly in the case body 11. The crown 12 has grooves 14 which engage the pin 13 when the crown is depressed to a bottom position. Inthe crown shown there are four rectangular grooves. Obviously both the grooves and the pin could have other shapes and the number of grooves could be varied as a means of selecting the maximum angle through which it would be necessary to rotate the crown to bring a groove into registry with the pin.

Turning to FIG. 2, 15 is a stem pipe on whichthe crown is mounted, 16 is a packing between the stem pipe and the crown and 17 is a ring for retaining the packing. In order to lock the crown without disturbing the indication of the watch, the crown is pulled out to a neutral position, rotated until there is registry between the pin and the groove, and then the crown is pushed in until it bottoms. The neutral position can be provided in the form of backlash which is greater than the-angle through which the crown must be rotated to bring a groove into registry with the pin. Alternatively an additional step in the distance through which the crown can be moved axially may be provided inwhich the crown can be rotated without either winding the watch or affecting its indication.

As is obvious, the means for locking the crown against rotation can take a variety of forms. Thus, the pin could be mounted on the crown and matching recesses could be provided in the case body.

In the variations described up to this point the pin and the grooveshave been parallel to the axis of the crown. However, radial projections and'recesses could also be used. Referring now to FIG. 3, radial, wedgeshaped projections 18 on the crown 12 can be brought into registry with recesses 19 in the case body 1 1. In the Examples shown, there are four wedges on the crown but, as is evident, even one wedge would be sufficient for most cases.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

What is claimed is:

l. A waterproof watch construction, comprising a case body member, a crown member, one of said members having a projection thereon, and the other having a recess therein adapted to receive said projection, and stem pipe mounted in said case body and said crown member being slidably mounted on said stem pipe, there being a neutral position to which said crown member can be slidingly moved on said stem pipe in which said crown member can be rotated without rotating said stem pipe which would otherwise wind said watch or affect the time indication of said watch, the crown member being rotatable to bring said recess and said projection into registry and being then depressable to engage said projection with said recess, thereby locking said crown member against unintentional rotation, said crown member being disengageable from locked position by outward movement alone.

2. The construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said projection is a pin firmly fixed in said case body member and said recess is a groove in the rim of said crown.

3. The construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said crown member is mounted for rotation on said case body member with sufficient backlash so that said crown member can be rotated to bringsaid recess into registry with said projection without disturbing the 7. The construction as defined in claim 6 wherein said projection is in said crown member, and said recess is in said case body member. 

1. A waterproof watch construction, comprising a case body member, a crown member, one of said members having a projection thereon, and the other having a recess therein adapted to receive said projection, and stem pipe mounted in said case body and said crown member being slidably mounted on said stem pipe, there being a neutral position to which said crown member can be slidingly moved on said stem pipe in which said crown member can be rotated without rotating said stem pipe which would otherwise wind said watch or affect the time indication of said watch, the crown member being rotatable to bring said recess and said projection into registry and being then depressable to engage said projection with said recess, thereby locking said crown member against unintentional rotation, said crown member being disengageable from locked position by outward movement alone.
 2. The construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said projection is a pin firmly fixed in said case body member and said recess is a groove in the rim of said crown.
 3. The construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said crown member is mounted for rotation on said case body member with sufficient backlash so that said crown member can be rotated to bring said recess into registry with said projection without disturbing the watch indication.
 4. The construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said projection and said recess have axes parallel to the axis of said crown member.
 5. The construction as defined in claim 1, wherein said projection and said recess have axes radial with respect to the axis of said crown.
 6. The construction as defined in claim 5 wherein said projection and said recess are wedge-shaped.
 7. The construction as defined in claim 6 wherein said projection is in said crown member, and said recess is in said case body member. 